The calls provide some interesting takes from Bankman-Fried, including his belief that if FTX had never filed for bankruptcy, “all users would be whole and withdrawals would be on on FTX right now—not just U.S., international as well.”
Advertisement
But that perspective seems to be wildly optimistic, perhaps bordering on delusional, based on the facts we already know in FTX’s bankruptcy filings. Bankman-Fried stepped down as the CEO of FTX and the man who replaced him, John J. Ray III, who also took over Enron after that company’s infamous collapse in 2001, said about FTX, “never in my career have I seen such a complete failure of corporate controls.”
Obviously everything that Bankman-Fried says at this point needs to be placed in the context that he was running a company valued at $32 billion, becoming a billionaire himself, and he ran that company into the ground through highly questionable actions. Crypto investors who’ve lost money with FTX are calling for Bankman-Fried to be jailed, while regulators in the Bahamas keep insisting that investigations take time and that other countries had a responsibility to keep FTX honest.
The Bankman-Fried saga is far from over, with the DOJ and SEC both reportedly investigating the collapse of FTX, and revelations that Moneyball author Michael Lewis was following the crypto billionaire around for about six months before the company imploded. Lewis is even shopping the movie rights to Hollywood before he’s even written a word of his upcoming book.
Advertisement
Incredibly, Bankman-Fried is scheduled to be interviewed by CNBC’s Andrew Ross Sorkin on Wednesday. Bankman-Fried was booked to speak at the DealBook Summit in New York before his company’s implosion, but the interview will be especially interesting now that everything went to shit.
Sorkin has tweeted that nothing will be off limits in their discussion, but it’s not clear if Bankman-Fried will be flying in for the interview or participating virtually from the Bahamas. If he flies in, it will definitely become a circus.